License Plate News

[kphoger]

Expanding on this, the mixing of letters and numbers in the same positions gives way to 4 different combinations of letters and numbers
5 letter 1 number      32%
4 letter 2 number      44%

Pet peeve of mine:  when license plate serial numbers have more letters than numerals.  It bugs me that this will be true of three-fourths of Arizona's license plates.

[elsmere241]

Expanding on this, the mixing of letters and numbers in the same positions gives way to 4 different combinations of letters and numbers
5 letter 1 number      32%
4 letter 2 number      44%

Pet peeve of mine:  when license plate serial numbers have more letters than numerals.  It bugs me that this will be true of three-fourths of Arizona's license plates.

Delaware having all numbers, except for maybe a letter or two in front (there are now specialty plates with as many as three letters in front) took some getting used to.

[Flint1979]

I'm about two months away from renewing my registration. I'm going to get one of the throwback Michigan plates.

[Ted$8roadFan]

Expanding on this, the mixing of letters and numbers in the same positions gives way to 4 different combinations of letters and numbers
5 letter 1 number      32%
4 letter 2 number      44%

Pet peeve of mine:  when license plate serial numbers have more letters than numerals.  It bugs me that this will be true of three-fourths of Arizona's license plates.

Delaware having all numbers, except for maybe a letter or two in front (there are now specialty plates with as many as three letters in front) took some getting used to.

I've always wondered why Delaware hasn't run out of plate combinations with all numbers.

[Scott5114]

Expanding on this, the mixing of letters and numbers in the same positions gives way to 4 different combinations of letters and numbers
5 letter 1 number      32%
4 letter 2 number      44%

Pet peeve of mine:  when license plate serial numbers have more letters than numerals.  It bugs me that this will be true of three-fourths of Arizona's license plates.

Delaware having all numbers, except for maybe a letter or two in front (there are now specialty plates with as many as three letters in front) took some getting used to.

I've always wondered why Delaware hasn't run out of plate combinations with all numbers.

I think it's a keep-your-own-plate state, and once you get assigned a number all further plate replacements keep the same number. So if you live in DE your entire life, every car you own will have the same plate number.

[mgk920]

Expanding on this, the mixing of letters and numbers in the same positions gives way to 4 different combinations of letters and numbers
5 letter 1 number      32%
4 letter 2 number      44%

Pet peeve of mine:  when license plate serial numbers have more letters than numerals.  It bugs me that this will be true of three-fourths of Arizona's license plates.

Delaware having all numbers, except for maybe a letter or two in front (there are now specialty plates with as many as three letters in front) took some getting used to.

I've always wondered why Delaware hasn't run out of plate combinations with all numbers.

I think it's a keep-your-own-plate state, and once you get assigned a number all further plate replacements keep the same number. So if you live in DE your entire life, every car you own will have the same plate number.

Doesn't Delaware also recycle 'retired' plate numbers?  I seriously doubt that they currently have over one million active vehicle registrations.

mike

[elsmere241]

Expanding on this, the mixing of letters and numbers in the same positions gives way to 4 different combinations of letters and numbers
5 letter 1 number      32%
4 letter 2 number      44%

Pet peeve of mine:  when license plate serial numbers have more letters than numerals.  It bugs me that this will be true of three-fourths of Arizona's license plates.

Delaware having all numbers, except for maybe a letter or two in front (there are now specialty plates with as many as three letters in front) took some getting used to.

I've always wondered why Delaware hasn't run out of plate combinations with all numbers.

I think it's a keep-your-own-plate state, and once you get assigned a number all further plate replacements keep the same number. So if you live in DE your entire life, every car you own will have the same plate number.

Doesn't Delaware also recycle 'retired' plate numbers?  I seriously doubt that they currently have over one million active vehicle registrations.

mike

Yes they do.

[MikeTheActuary]

Pet peeve of mine:  when license plate serial numbers have more letters than numerals.  It bugs me that this will be true of three-fourths of Arizona's license plates.

My pet peeve with Connecticut's current license plate number series is that there is too much of an imbalance between letters and numbers.

Currently, plates are being issued in AA 00000 format.   I wish when they went to 7 characters they had gone to AAA 0000 instead.

[kphoger]

Currently, plates are being issued in AA 00000 format.   I wish when they went to 7 characters they had gone to AAA 0000 instead.

Doesn't bother me at all.  In my opinion, serial numbers should be primarily numbers, with letters merely serving to increase the pool of serials to draw from.

I also dislike it when the serial number is broken up into multiple blocks, yet letters and numerals are jumbled together in each block.  To me, half the point of dividing it into blocks is to separate letters from numerals.

So, for example...

I dislike this approach (I wish the B were separated from the numerals):



And this is ridiculous (no easier to parse than if they weren't separated into two blocks):



For these reasons, I actually don't mind this one so much (at least they don't even try):



If letters absolutely must outnumber numerals, then I prefer that there at least not be a four-letter block.  So, for example, the most recent Mexican issues are at least tolerable:



Much better, in my opinion, than this:

[frankenroad]

I also dislike it when the serial number is broken up into multiple blocks, yet letters and numerals are jumbled together in each block.  To me, half the point of dividing it into blocks is to separate letters from numerals.

I agree with you.  Missouri is bad at this.

There is no reason why every state in the union cannot use one of the following formats (with a space or separator between the letters and numbers), with judicious replacements every 20 years or so.

AAA-nnnn (it will take even California over 45 years to exhaust this same number of plates in their current nXXXnnn format)
AAA-nnn
AA-nnnn

These can be reversed as well (e.g., after ZZ-9999 comes 0000-AA)

I know some states like to code either counties and/or expiration months into their plate numbers, but that can be achieved while still using the formats above.

[7/8]

If letters absolutely must outnumber numerals, then I prefer that there at least not be a four-letter block.  So, for example, the most recent Mexican issues are at least tolerable:



Much better, in my opinion, than this:

Nah, Ontario's is great since you can get four letter words (assuming they're not rude, in which case they'll skip those!). Though my brother says mine, CLJT, looks like a certain body part.

That Alabama example is the worst one of the bunch you posted IMO. 7 characters with a confusing pattern of letters and numbers, no spaces, and a distracting background too. You can't get much worse in terms of trying to read and remember that plate!

[LateSleeper]

My pet peeve with Connecticut's current license plate number series is that there is too much of an imbalance between letters and numbers.

Currently, plates are being issued in AA 00000 format.   I wish when they went to 7 characters they had gone to AAA 0000 instead.

I think Connecticut realized that with AAA 0000, they'd be stuck in the "A" series long enough to provide sarcastic New Yorkers with years of wry comments.

Here in Illinois we went from A 000000 to AA 00000, which seems logical - one letter to two, seven digits total. We have AAA 0000's, but they're mostly for company sedan fleets or vanities and they're hardly ever seen. I'm sure we'll go to AAA 0000 next, as letters after numbers are for non-passenger plates in Illinois.

[Road Hog]

Also not a fan of the Ontario AAAA 000 combination, although it becomes slightly less annoying each time, kind of like 4-deck headlines in newspapers.

[machias]

The latest 3-space-3 in Arizona are much more readable than the scrambled seven character plates. Plus, they're much less likely to look like words.

[rlb2024]

If letters absolutely must outnumber numerals, then I prefer that there at least not be a four-letter block.  So, for example, the most recent Mexican issues are at least tolerable:



Much better, in my opinion, than this:

Nah, Ontario's is great since you can get four letter words (assuming they're not rude, in which case they'll skip those!). Though my brother says mine, CLJT, looks like a certain body part.

That Alabama example is the worst one of the bunch you posted IMO. 7 characters with a confusing pattern of letters and numbers, no spaces, and a distracting background too. You can't get much worse in terms of trying to read and remember that plate!

The pictures didn't come through on my computer so I don't know if you're talking about the old Alabama plates or the new ones being issued this year, but I like the new ones.  They are much easier to read than the old ones.  Alabama replaces all plates every five years by state law, so there has to be a jumble of letters and numbers so that there's no duplication during the replacement cycle.  The first one or two numbers represent the county, which I like being able to see what part of the state the vehicle is from.

[7/8]

If letters absolutely must outnumber numerals, then I prefer that there at least not be a four-letter block.  So, for example, the most recent Mexican issues are at least tolerable:



Much better, in my opinion, than this:

Nah, Ontario's is great since you can get four letter words (assuming they're not rude, in which case they'll skip those!). Though my brother says mine, CLJT, looks like a certain body part.

That Alabama example is the worst one of the bunch you posted IMO. 7 characters with a confusing pattern of letters and numbers, no spaces, and a distracting background too. You can't get much worse in terms of trying to read and remember that plate!

The pictures didn't come through on my computer so I don't know if you're talking about the old Alabama plates or the new ones being issued this year, but I like the new ones.  They are much easier to read than the old ones.  Alabama replaces all plates every five years by state law, so there has to be a jumble of letters and numbers so that there's no duplication during the replacement cycle.  The first one or two numbers represent the county, which I like being able to see what part of the state the vehicle is from.

Are you using Chrome? I switched to Firefox because I was tired of images not loading on the forum.

The Alabama plate I was talking about is in this link. I looked up the latest plate (2022) and it looks better in terms of contrast between the black serial number and yellow background: https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2021/10/12/new-alabama-license-plate-designs-coming-2022/6102171001/

Replacing every plate every five years seems wasteful, though I understand other states do that to. So if you get a new plate on the fourth year, even though it's in great shape, you're forced to get a new one next year? That seems silly to me. Is there an extra charge for getting the replacement plate?

[rlb2024]

If letters absolutely must outnumber numerals, then I prefer that there at least not be a four-letter block.  So, for example, the most recent Mexican issues are at least tolerable:



Much better, in my opinion, than this:

Nah, Ontario's is great since you can get four letter words (assuming they're not rude, in which case they'll skip those!). Though my brother says mine, CLJT, looks like a certain body part.

That Alabama example is the worst one of the bunch you posted IMO. 7 characters with a confusing pattern of letters and numbers, no spaces, and a distracting background too. You can't get much worse in terms of trying to read and remember that plate!

The pictures didn't come through on my computer so I don't know if you're talking about the old Alabama plates or the new ones being issued this year, but I like the new ones.  They are much easier to read than the old ones.  Alabama replaces all plates every five years by state law, so there has to be a jumble of letters and numbers so that there's no duplication during the replacement cycle.  The first one or two numbers represent the county, which I like being able to see what part of the state the vehicle is from.

Are you using Chrome? I switched to Firefox because I was tired of images not loading on the forum.

The Alabama plate I was talking about is in this link. I looked up the latest plate (2022) and it looks better in terms of contrast between the black serial number and yellow background: https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2021/10/12/new-alabama-license-plate-designs-coming-2022/6102171001/

Replacing every plate every five years seems wasteful, though I understand other states do that to. So if you get a new plate on the fourth year, even though it's in great shape, you're forced to get a new one next year? That seems silly to me. Is there an extra charge for getting the replacement plate?

I don't live in Alabama so I'm not sure if there is an extra charge but I doubt it.  Mississippi does a similar replacement cycle and there's no extra charge when new plates are issued -- I used to handle it for my in-laws.

I actually prefer the replacement cycle -- makes it easier to tell when someone hasn't renewed their tags in a long time.  Here in Louisiana there's no tag replacement -- some tags are over 20 years old and look it.  And since all renewal stickers are white with black printing regardless of year you have to look really hard to see if tags are current.

[kphoger]

The pictures didn't come through on my computer

Are you using Chrome?

Right-click  →  Open image in new tab

[7/8]

The pictures didn't come through on my computer

Are you using Chrome?

Right-click  →  Open image in new tab

I know, but that gets tiresome quickly, particularly in the photo game threads.

[kphoger]

The pictures didn't come through on my computer

Are you using Chrome?

Right-click  →  Open image in new tab

I know, but that gets tiresome quickly, particularly in the photo game threads.

I didn't know if |rlb2024| was aware.

[Scott5114]

Chrome developers don't understand how the internet works, so they made the egregious decision to block images served over HTTP if they appear in an HTTPS page (like the forum is) for "security reasons". Of course, anyone who spends more than fifteen seconds thinking about this would realize this is a dumb decision because a user with no web space of their own is subject to the whims of whatever configuration the source of an image is. You can't dictate that a site you don't own use HTTPS just so you can post an image from there. That is, they forgot that people occasionally post on sites other than the high-dollar corporate social media platforms that have billions of dollars to blow hosting their users' images.

I think you can disable this behavior in Chrome, but honestly it's probably better to just delete it and use Firefox, lest the Chrome devs decide to start blocking pages with a suspicious number of vowels, or with background colors they don't agree with, or hosted on servers in no-front-license-plate states, or whatever bee gets in their bonnet that day.

[SD Mapman]

I also dislike it when the serial number is broken up into multiple blocks, yet letters and numerals are jumbled together in each block.  To me, half the point of dividing it into blocks is to separate letters from numerals.

So, for example...

I dislike this approach (I wish the B were separated from the numerals):

So the reason this particular one is divided into blocks is county coding; this one is specifically from Deer Lodge County. I'm assuming the B is because they ran out of number-only plates like Laramie County has in Wyoming, but I don't know how MT works.
Wyoming's main system is C-00000 where the last five numbers are the plate number. When they run out of numbers in a county, as happened a couple months ago in Cheyenne, it goes to 00-0000A. South Dakota's current system is CA0-000 for the first 9 counties and CCA-000 for the other 57, with numbers being replaced by letters as they run out of plates. In my opinion, SD should move to a WY-like system of CC-AAA-000 so that each county has the same number of available plates.

[FrCorySticha]

I also dislike it when the serial number is broken up into multiple blocks, yet letters and numerals are jumbled together in each block.  To me, half the point of dividing it into blocks is to separate letters from numerals.

So, for example...

I dislike this approach (I wish the B were separated from the numerals):

So the reason this particular one is divided into blocks is county coding; this one is specifically from Deer Lodge County. I'm assuming the B is because they ran out of number-only plates like Laramie County has in Wyoming, but I don't know how MT works.
Wyoming's main system is C-00000 where the last five numbers are the plate number. When they run out of numbers in a county, as happened a couple months ago in Cheyenne, it goes to 00-0000A. South Dakota's current system is CA0-000 for the first 9 counties and CCA-000 for the other 57, with numbers being replaced by letters as they run out of plates. In my opinion, SD should move to a WY-like system of CC-AAA-000 so that each county has the same number of available plates.

Originally MT plates were either #-000000 for counties 1-9 or ##-00000 for the rest of the counties. There used to be #T-00000/##T-0000 on pickup trucks, or #C-00000 for vehicles licensed in the larger cities (Billings, Missoula, etc.). Once the original run of numbers for each county runs out, they move to #-00000A/##-0000A. Recently they've started issuing #-00000B/##-0000B.

[Scott5114]

I also dislike it when the serial number is broken up into multiple blocks, yet letters and numerals are jumbled together in each block.  To me, half the point of dividing it into blocks is to separate letters from numerals.

So, for example...

I dislike this approach (I wish the B were separated from the numerals):

So the reason this particular one is divided into blocks is county coding; this one is specifically from Deer Lodge County. I'm assuming the B is because they ran out of number-only plates like Laramie County has in Wyoming, but I don't know how MT works.
Wyoming's main system is C-00000 where the last five numbers are the plate number. When they run out of numbers in a county, as happened a couple months ago in Cheyenne, it goes to 00-0000A. South Dakota's current system is CA0-000 for the first 9 counties and CCA-000 for the other 57, with numbers being replaced by letters as they run out of plates. In my opinion, SD should move to a WY-like system of CC-AAA-000 so that each county has the same number of available plates.

I feel like the best way to handle it is the way Kansas does, where all county plates come from the same number pool and the county is indicated by a two-letter code sticker in the corner. (Oklahoma does this too, but our county sticker is combined with the month sticker so you can't read either of them.)

[SD Mapman]

I also dislike it when the serial number is broken up into multiple blocks, yet letters and numerals are jumbled together in each block.  To me, half the point of dividing it into blocks is to separate letters from numerals.

So, for example...

I dislike this approach (I wish the B were separated from the numerals):

So the reason this particular one is divided into blocks is county coding; this one is specifically from Deer Lodge County. I'm assuming the B is because they ran out of number-only plates like Laramie County has in Wyoming, but I don't know how MT works.
Wyoming's main system is C-00000 where the last five numbers are the plate number. When they run out of numbers in a county, as happened a couple months ago in Cheyenne, it goes to 00-0000A. South Dakota's current system is CA0-000 for the first 9 counties and CCA-000 for the other 57, with numbers being replaced by letters as they run out of plates. In my opinion, SD should move to a WY-like system of CC-AAA-000 so that each county has the same number of available plates.

Originally MT plates were either #-000000 for counties 1-9 or ##-00000 for the rest of the counties. There used to be #T-00000/##T-0000 on pickup trucks, or #C-00000 for vehicles licensed in the larger cities (Billings, Missoula, etc.). Once the original run of numbers for each county runs out, they move to #-00000A/##-0000A. Recently they've started issuing #-00000B/##-0000B.

So it is like Wyoming then! Good to know.

I feel like the best way to handle it is the way Kansas does, where all county plates come from the same number pool and the county is indicated by a two-letter code sticker in the corner. (Oklahoma does this too, but our county sticker is combined with the month sticker so you can't read either of them.)

I mean the KS one works fairly well; county coding plates seems to be a thing in the Northern Plains and northern Mountain West (NE, SD, WY, MT, and ID all county code in the plate number), I remember when the last redesign for SD happened they talked about refreshing the numbering system (it's designed so the 9 largest counties have the most plates, but 1-9 aren't the 9 largest counties anymore) but all the small-town folks complained that they'd have to memorize a different system to know where everyone was from.

I know a guy from Cody, WY (Park Co., #11) who dismissively calls people from Big Horn County (#9) "Niners" and swears that none of them can drive properly.